Yummy Easy Salsa!

Getting my kids to eat veggies is a serious chore, especially for super picky B. Monster Man does a bit better, but here is one way to get BOTH of them to eat veggies (and sometimes fruit) and ASK for more!!

SALSA!!! 
 Yes, salsa with tomatoes, onions and avocado.  Will my kids touch avocado?? Oh yes they will now and it's so super easy!
The first time I made this I did follow a recipe which I thought was from AllRecipies.com or  Pioneer Woman Cooks, though I can only find her avocado corn salsa, not this one...hmmm.  So since then,  I kind of wing it, which isn't difficult with only a few ingredients. Easy to play with and vary according to your family's tastes.  :-D

The Basics:
1 sliced/chopped avocado
1 large (or 2-3 small) diced tomato
about 1/4 to 1/2 of a chopped or diced medium onion

*(all the above can be diced or chopped, depending on how smooth or chunky you like salsa...or how   tired you are and really don't want to dice anything! :-D)

Dash of garlic powder
Dash of pepper
1 or 2 TB of cilantro flakes or fresh, finely-chopped cilantro (better)
1 TB of lime juice

The easy part is you can improvise:
-use some plum or cherry tomatoes cut in halves or quarters OR
- use small can of already diced tomatoes (fresh does taste better)
-In an "OMG I'm have NO onions" panic, I even used dehydrated onions from the Amish store (set in warm water for a few minutes first)
-Fresh minced garlic instead of powder
-Totally leave out the lime juice or use just a splash balsamic vinegar

Mix well with a spoon. Can be enjoyed right away, though the flavors do enhance if you chill the mix for a couple hours.  Dip with white corn chips or layer on tortillas, use as a side to grilled fish, or Mr. FixIt's fav- dipped using pretzel chips as an "I'm starving and can't wait for dinner!!" snack.

In searching for the original recipe, I came across several others- some with corn, some use chillies or jalapenos and even apples. Yes- APPLES!! Veggies and fruit- BONUS!! That was the new ingredient for us last night.  I added a teaspoon of taco seasoning, the balsamic vinegar and one chopped granny smith apple.  Talk about YUM!! I didn't tell Mr. FixIt what was in it before he tasted it. He kept going after it saying, "Wow- a little heat but something sweet is in there!!"  S-U-C-C-E-S-S! 

Ok, there you go- Take it! Play with it!! Enjoy!!

Like homemade? Try this.

If you like to save money, here's an easy home recipe to try...for laundry soap.  Yup. I've always been one for bargains and hate to pay big bucks for detergent.  I was always super happy to get Arm& H@mmer or Pur#x depending on whichever one was on sale with a coupon to lower the price even more. About a year ago, I came across a site with information how to make your own laundry detergent for super cheap!!  So why not, I already had two of the three ingredients anyway.  All you need is a bar of Fels-Naptha soap (or Ivory or Castile soap), a box of 20 Mule Team Borax and a box of Arm & H@ammer Washing Soda (not baking soda, WASHING soda).  The Mule Team Borax and the washing soda are located in the laundry aisle at the grocery, usually top shelf.  The Fels-Naptha may be there, though in Giant Eagle you have to look in the hand soap aisle, bottom shelf between lotions and hand soaps.  You can make the detergent either a powder or liquid.  I've made both, and I prefer powder.  Faster and easier to make; easier to measure out. Easier for the kids to use (since you have to remember to stir or shake the liquid before use). Google  will find you a multitude of recipes all over the place. This one is from The Frugal Shopper Site. This page also has links to other homemade items- check it out.


Powdered Laundry Detergent (aprx. 32 loads)
1 Cup grated Fels-Naptha Soap
1/2 Cup Arm & Hammer WASHING Soda
1/2 Cup 20 Mule Team Borax

 












Grate the bar of soap, nearly one entire bar grated = 1 cup. If you want to work out your forearms and hands, use a hand grater as I have here. If you'd rather do this in 30 seconds instead of 15 minutes and don't care about your forearms...use your food processor. :-D  

You can leave the soap grated as is or you can further reduce it down to powder. It does mix better as a powder, but I've made it both ways. Takes about three whirrrs in the Magic Bullet to make a powder out of the grated shavings,  or if you already have your food processor out, change the blade and give it a whirl in there.  You can see the difference below.

Put the grated/powdered soap into a container, add the washing soda and borax. Mix thoroughly.  *Great science lesson about measuring and mixtures here. :-D If you make the liquid version (see link), more lessons about solutions-solute, solvent, suspension, etc.  FUN stuff!! 

I use a plastic coffee container with a snap lid (pic above). Works well. Easy for even the kids to pick up and scoop out of. Oh and that's the best part...note the measuring utensil in the container: a tablespoon. Only ONE Tablespoon per load. This is low sudsing and great for front loaders. If I had a top load washer, I'd probably use 2 TB.  A double batch of this recipe will about half fill a large coffee container and gives you aprx 64 loads of detergent. 


The cost breakdown: 
1 Bar Fels-Naptha - $1.50 to $1.75

1 Box Arm & Hammer Washing soda- about $4 bucks depending on where you get it. (aprx 7 cups)

1 Box 20 Mule Team Borax - $5 to $7 depending on where you buy it. (aprx 9 cups)


You can get at least 14 batches out of washing soda and 18 batches of borax per box. When you do the math it equals to just slightly over $2 per batch (32 loads). Cheaper if you find any of the above on sale or have coupons.  Not to bad, eh?  It cleans clothes really well -trust me I have THOROUGHLY tested it out! Two, get down in the mud and grass kids, who also like to help hunt (blood and guts), and work on bikes with daddy (grease). All comes clean with this stuff. 


You will also find hints of using white vinegar as a laundry softener and I have used that. Yes, it does work, and no, it doesn't make your clothes smell like a salad! :-D  I do like nice scents to my clothes but have yet to go get the essential oils to make my own (by adding them to vinegar)...so until I get motivated in that department I'll keep my bargain store-bought with coupon softener. Though it is good to know if you run out of softener, you can use vinegar in a pinch! 


There you go. Cheap laundry detergent that can be made in less than 5 minutes and WORKS!!
Enjoy!

Giving it a shot.

Ok,  new year, new goals, starting over with a clean slate...blah, blah, etc.  So not that I have a snowball's chance in hell of completing even a week of NaBloPoMo, I'm on the blogroll for January.  Stay tuned to watch me spiral down to a silent-forgot-to-blog death in the YOU SUCK blogging category.  I would hate to disappoint my hundreds four followers by actually finishing a month of blogging!  Hehh. Giving it a shot for the heck of it.

Speaking of shots- OMG - Mr. FixIt received a recipe from a co-worker over the holidays. It is a long-time used family recipe. If you like B@iley's...you are sooooo going to love this.  HOMEmade Irish Cre@m. A shot of this stuff is not enough. You need a glass :-D

Easy peasy. You probably have most of this stuff at home already.  Here goes.

1 cup whiskey (cheap is fine, we used Evan Williams)

3 beaten eggs

1/4 teaspoon coconut extract

2 teaspoons Hershey’s chocolate

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping (not whipped, straight from the carton)

1 14oz can Eagle Sweetened Cond. Milk

Put all ingredients in a blender and mix on high.  Refrigerate and it will thicken. Keep refrigerated, should keep for about a month or so.

Like it will last that long?? What kind of non-drinkers suggest that??  Mr. FixIt cranked out a batch of this last night for New Year's Eve and it's more than half gone already.  Wheeeeeeee!!!!!

Honestly, I think you could put a touch more chocolate in it and touch of mint extract and have an equivalent B@iley's Irish Mint, but whatever you try,  in honor of the family that has passed it down for years...don't screw it up. :-D   You wouldn't want to waste even cheap whiskey anyway, hehe.

Alrighty NaBloPoMo....Day 1 down.  Only 30 more to go!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Dinner anyone?

I am feeling a bit bummed in the dinner department lately. What to have?? Same ole stuff? Try something new?? I've fallen off my "think up dinner ideas for a week" wagon. Even if I didn't make an actual list right then of what I had on hand/wanted/needed, but just a general idea of at least a main dish and a few sides/veggies so I wouldn't have to think about dinner for several days at a time. That wagon is loooooooong gone. Kind of like the "gonna get on the elliptical every day" wagon. Ugh.

I have a couple of decent cookbooks, but really don't care to look in them. Well, except maybe 10 minutes before I need to start dinner, and then I'm always missing at least one ingredient I can't do without. I have a R@chel Ray Easy 30- and 60-minute meals book. EASY??! She's either smokin' cheap crack or she is seriously spoiled! I don't even know why I bought the damn book- ok, wait I do know, I got it like 75% off-- because her squeaky, raspy voice spikes my gag reflex and makes me want to knock some wind into her lungs. Drives me batty. Back to the book...most of her recipes in this book have at least two if not three hard-to-find or seriously expensive ingredients. Does she thinks we keep all that stuff on hand?? Or have enough money to go get that stuff for every meal?? (return to crack/spoiled comment) Ugh. Double Ugh. And throw a gag in there for good measure.

I just remembered!! Kandace aka- One Crazy Chick- had a recipe contest/post a couple months ago!! Wooohooo! OH! And Pioneer Woman has a whole food section! YAY!

Further proof that blogging does not waste time- it has a distinct purpose. Thankfully this week's purpose is to bring dinner back to life!! Yeee-haaww!!!

Recipe contest!

Jump over here to One Crazy Chick (formerly Touch of Chaos) where Kandace is hosting a recipe contest! Go check out the new dinner ideas and enter a fav of your own!

Good luck!

Oh almost forgot- contest runs until Saturday the 17th at 5pm Pacific (8 pm Ohio time, lol)